![\"Akram](\"http:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-content\/uploads\/060911-lemeridien-touma.gif\" "\\"Akram")
Shanghai is bursting with new hotel openings that will help alleviate the shortage Shanghai encounters when big conventions come to town. One new hotel, Le Royal M\u00e9ridien Shanghai, provides business people with a new place to stay in Shanghai's bustling People's Square area. Not only is the hotel's opening a boon for the city, but it also heralds the first China opening for a Le M\u00e9ridien branded hotel after Starwood acquired the international brand.<\/p>\n
Originally from Australia, Akram Touma is the new General Manager at the Le Royal M\u00e9ridien Shanghai. Touma was appointed to this current position in early April 2006, and prior to that he was General Manager of The Westin Resort Macau for 5 years.<\/p>\n
What are the key matters you are concerned with during pre-opening?<\/strong> How is Le Royal M\u00e9ridien Shanghai preparing itself to meet the needs of the meetings and conferencing market? <\/strong> How are you planning to differentiate Le Royal M\u00e9ridien Shanghai's MICE facilities from those of your Shanghai competitors?<\/strong> Together with other 5 star-hotels, we will make Shanghai the preferred destination for global conferences.<\/p>\n How is Le M\u00e9ridien being integrated into Starwood and what are the benefits to this unification?<\/strong> I worked for Le M\u00e9ridien many years ago and kept in touch with many of my former bosses and colleagues. I can tell you that the Meridien folks are as excited about the merger as we are. We have become a bigger family of well-defined brands.<\/p>\n How is Le M\u00e9ridien planning to grow its brand in China in the next few years?<\/strong> For your staffing needs, what sort of qualities do you look for in your executive team?<\/strong> If a tourist has 24 hours to spend in Shanghai, what do you suggest they do?<\/strong> Shanghai is bursting with new hotel openings that will help alleviate the shortage Shanghai encounters when big conventions come to town. One new hotel, Le Royal M\u00e9ridien Shanghai, provides business people with a new place to stay in Shanghai's bustling People's Square area. Not only is the hotel's opening a boon for the city, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12723],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-33874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33874"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33874\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.chinahospitalitynews.com\/cn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nProcurement of hotel operating equipment, which is time consuming, recruiting the right team and establishing the right culture from the beginning.<\/p>\n
\nWe have world-class facilities, the best possible location and support from the powerful systems of Starwood and complemented by a very competent and highly motivated team<\/p>\n
\nLe Royal M\u00e9ridien Shanghai is the newest 5-star luxury hotel in Shanghai with a very privileged location on Nanjing Road East overlooking the People's Square, museum and opera house. We have 10 bars and restaurants and 12 state-of-the-art ballrooms and function rooms with natural light and wireless Internet. Our chic rooms have stunning views of the Bund, river and Shanghai city. We are not just ideal for corporate meetings and conference–we are a dream come true for every conference organizer.<\/p>\n
\nLe M\u00e9ridien is the perfect match for Starwood with strong European heritage and presence in key cities in Europe, Africa and the Middle East that makes Starwood stronger. With Starwood's formidable marketing delivery system, Le M\u00e9ridien is now poised for further success.<\/p>\n
\nThere is a tremendous potential of growth within China. We are seeing a lot of interest from the investment community and I am sure China will enjoy more Le M\u00e9ridien hotels in the near future.<\/p>\n
\nWe look for great people with commitment to each other and an authentic caring attitude.<\/p>\n
\n– A walk on Nanjing Lu East (pedestrian part)
\n– Shanghai Museum
\n– The Bund
\n– Yu Yuan Gardens
\n– Huangli Lu Computer Market
\n– Dinner at the Bund<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"